Current state law prohibits the Franchise Tax Board from publicly displaying
an individual's social security number in an effort to protect against
identity theft. The law, though, provides an exception for reporting liens
to third parties, such as financial institutions, employers and county
recorders' offices.

Chiang, who chairs the Franchise Tax Board, said the department will
immediately begin lining out social security numbers and manually processing
liens until a process is in place to automate the masking of social security
numbers.

Liens are public records, and are used to collect taxes owed when the
FTB cannot collect through voluntary means, withholding orders, garnishing
or asset seizure.